Data grab: Doctors will be forced to hand over sensitive information about patients as part of a new programme called Everyone Counts but campaigners have criticised the move The data includes weight, cholesterol levels, body mass index, pulse rate, family health history, alcohol consumption and smoking status. Diagnosis of everything from cancer to heart disease to mental illness would be covered. Family doctors will have to pass on dates of birth, postcodes and NHS numbers. . . .

GPs are to be forced to hand over confidential records on all their patients’ drinking habits, waist sizes and illnesses.The files will be stored in a giant information bank that privacy campaigners say represents the ‘biggest data grab in NHS history’. They warned the move would end patient confidentiality and hand personal information to third parties. The data includes weight, cholesterol levels, body mass index, pulse rate, family health history, alcohol consumption and smoking status. Diagnosis of everything from cancer to heart disease to mental illness would be covered. Family doctors will have to pass on dates of birth, postcodes...

On paper, the third-ranked Iowa wrestling team had every bit a chance to win Friday night’s dual with Penn State as the top-ranked Nittany Lions. Both teams had top-ranked wrestlers and both had matches they should have won. The Hawkeyes took care of the matches they were favored in and did a little more as Tony Ramos earned a big win by fall at 133 and sophomore Mike Evans won the only true swing match of the night during a 22-16 victory over Penn State in front of a loud and crazy sold-out crowd of 15,077 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The...

A Republican House freshman will be in the spotlight Friday at an NAACP press conference for an email he sent to the state organization, calling the group and its leader "racist" and "race-opportunists." Rep. Michael Speciale, R-Craven, along with all other state lawmakers, received an emailed version of a statement last week by NAACP state president William Barber on proposed voter ID legislation. In the statement, Barber calls voter ID initiatives "national propaganda efforts by the far-right to justify the obvious tactic to suppress the votes of minorities, youth, disabled and the elderly," and urges Republican legislative leaders to abandon...

In 2005, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a bill that made gun distributors and manufacturers immune from lawsuits. While no other industry enjoys this kind of special government protection, the National Rifle Association had pushed the law for years as its top priority. It hailed the act as "the most significant piece of pro-gun legislation in twenty years." They were right. The bill wiped out a series of lawsuits brought by mayors across the country to hold the gun industry responsible for the carnage in America's cities. The NRA finally scored this legislative victory because...

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has launched an internal investigation into a flawed storefront sting in Milwaukee marred by a series of missteps and failures. The review was launched this week after a Journal Sentinel investigation exposed a 10-month federal operation during which an agent's Colt M-4 machine gun was stolen and burglars ripped off $35,000 in merchandise from the agency's phony store. U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) on Friday joined a chorus of public officials from both parties demanding accountability from the ATF. Two other congressional letters were sent to the agency Thursday, including one...

Japan Lets Its New Defense Budget Do The Talking Over Island Dispute Robert JohnsonFebruary 2, 2013, 5:11 AMJapan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) escort ship "Kurama" leads other vessels during a fleet review in water off Sagami Bay, south of Tokyo Japan's prime minister announced his country will vigorously defend itself against all Chinese threats following a series of confrontations over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu island chain. Purchased by Japan, the islands' ownership is hotly contested by China, which for several months has sent ships, reconnaissance planes, and fighter jets to the area to face off against Japanese forces. It has become...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Just because you own your smart phone doesn't mean you have complete control over the device. No matter where you live or work or attend school, lots of people communicating on smart phones is pretty standard. "If you spend money on a phone you should be able to use the phone however you please as long as it's within the boundaries of the law," says GW law student CJ Hancock. Those boundaries have just gotten a little smaller, at least for anyone who bought a phone after January 26. Now, exemptions laid out in the Digital Millenium...

The sad fact is that it appears completely rational to be ignorant about politics. The cost of being an 'informed' voter - as opposed to a bigotted closed-minded ignoramus - is high, from the time spent following (and interpreting) the news in the paper, online, and on the television. As the following clip notes, "becoming an informed voter is competing with a lot of other needs in your life," from American Idol watching to eating Cheetos in the bath. Of course, the sad truth is that it has never been more important to be 'informed' and so the 'bread-and-circuses' will...

The Backbone Of America's Bomber Force Is Getting A Massive Upgrade (B-1B Lancer) David Cenciotti, The AviationistFebruary 2, 2013, 4:30 AM The U.S. Air Force is about to further upgrade its fleet of B-1B Lancer bombers. With what the service announces as “the largest B-1 modification in program history” the supersonic swing-wing bomber will get several improvements as part of the Integrated Battle Station and Sustainment-Block 16 (SB-16) upgrade aimed to provide B-1 aircrews with a higher level of situational awareness and a faster, secure digital communication link. SB-16, includes a Vertical Situation Display Upgrade in the cockpit that will...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (CBSDC) — A medical company is blaming President Obama’s health care law for the layoffs of nearly 100 people. Smith & Nephew says a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices in the “Obamacare” law caused the layoffs in the Memphis and Andover, Mass., offices. “The nearly $30 billion tax on medical devices that took effect Jan. 1, 2013, has impacted a number of companies across the U.S.,” the company said in a statement to WHBQ-TV. Joe Metzger, senior vice president of corporate communications for the company, tells the Memphis Business Journal that they were “not immune” to...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) fended off questions about Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) at a press conference about immigration reform. The first question out of the gate was from CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, who asked Reid when he learned that Menendez had reimbursed a political donor nearly $60,000 for two trips he took on the donor’s private plane. Reid defended the Menendez as a “friend” and “outstanding senator” but declined to discuss any details he may have had with the New Jersey lawmaker about media reports of allegations that he had sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. “First...

-Snip- And while successful retailers in 2012 may add stores this year, those that have performed very poorly may have to cut locations during 2013 to improve margins or reverse losses. For many retailers, the sales situation is so bad that it is not a question of whether they will cut stores, but when and how many. -Snip-

The New York Times spins it this way: The longest-serving president of any of the three network news divisions, Steve Capus of NBC News, stepped down from his position on Friday, six months after Comcast restructured its news units in a way that diminished his authority. Exactly how voluntary was this “stepping down”? John Nolte points to the scandal-plagued tenure of Capus at NBC News: 1. During last year’s presidential election, Andrea Mitchell was caught manufacturing a Romney gaffe where none existed. 2. During last year’s GOP primary, Ed Schultz edited video of Texas Governor Rick Perry to make him...

Senate Republicans are renewing their vow to block any nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unless major changes are made to its structure. In a letter sent to President Obama on Friday, 43 Republican senators committed to refusing approval of any nominee to head the consumer watchdog until the bureau underwent significant reform. Lawmakers signing on to the letter included Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee. "The CFPB as created by the deeply flawed Dodd-Frank Act is one of the least accountable in Washington,"...

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- "I will put everything I've got into this -- and so will Joe -- but I tell you, the only way we can change is if the American people demand it." said President Barack Obama, urging Congress to act now for stricter gun control. Since his re-election, guns and ammunition have been flying off the shelves at gun stores, as the president promises stiffer gun laws. The rush for gun purchases and concealed weapon permits is on -- and the biggest spike in new gun sales is to women. While women make up only 20...

In light of our embassy bombing in Turkey this morning, John Bolton said that if we don’t face up to the reality that the war on terror isn’t over and that Al Qaeda hasn’t been defeated, we’ll see even more bombings from terrorists that are more successful in their eyes. The war on terror is not over. Al Qaeda has not been defeated. The struggle is spreading and if we don’t face up to that reality we’re going to have another attack on an American embassy that will be even more successful from the terrorist point of view. We have...

Officials in Pennsylvania’s state capital are dealing with an abysmal issue they can’t afford to fix: 41 massive sinkholes throughout the city as wide as 50 feet and as deep as a typical grave. ................ But the city is too broke to replace many of the aging pipes and repave its roads as it deals with ongoing budget woes and the looming threat of bankruptcy, according to media reports. The first of the recent sinkholes perforating Harrisburg was reported on New Year's Eve when a chasm measuring an estimated 50 feet long and eight feet deep, swallowed a neighborhood block,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools. For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful. Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

My daughter is transferring from DC to Denver and she is taking me to Denver next week to look for a place for her to live. We plan to make it a mini-vacation so any help with restaurants, landmarks, must-sees is greatly appreciated! We will have a car. Thanks in advance.

For the first time, a majority of Americans feel that the government threatens their individual rights and freedoms, according to a survey released on Thursday. Fifty-three percent of the 1,502 adults surveyed Jan. 9-13 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press responded that they believe that the federal government threatens their personal rights and freedoms. The Pew survey found that 43 percent disagreed. 76 percent of conservative Republicans said they feel threatened by Washington, compared with 62 percent three years ago, Pew found. Now!

LAST WEEK I GOT A SPEEDING TICKET. OK fine, I was speeding 32 mph in a 20 mph zone in front of the tank farm just past Scanlan's gas station. Well like a good citizen I go in to pay my ticket and the clerk tells me to pay $60.00.OK I pay my sala and notice that there are 2 revenue codes listed: 1 for (100-221-4510) $50.00 and 1 for (101-714-4512) $10.00. So I ask the clerk what the other charge was as I was only sighted for speeding.She tells me that the other charge is a Law Enforcement Fee....

GOBBLER'S KNOB -- Seconds ago amid a cheering but bone-chilled crowd, renowned rodent weather prognosticator Punxsutawney Phil failed to glimpsed his shadow, granting the country the welcome winter respite of an early spring, according to lore. punxsutawney_phil_groundhog_day.jpg View full size File photo of the renowned rodent, Punxsutawney Phil, making his annual weather prediction in Gobbler's Knob. AP AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, file Phil's favorable forecast -- one he makes just 10 percent of the time -- only served to fuel the enthusiasm of what organizers said was a record-breaking Groundhog Day crowd. Phil fanatics braved frigid, single-digit temperatures and biting windchill...

Perhaps it was the radio segment that I did this week asking for comments and feedback about unions. I asked on the air for people who were union members to call our listener line at 202-681-1732 or email us at ransomnotesradio@gmail.com. I was looking for comments about the good and bad that goes along with being represented by unions.Still looking for comments, and now want them even if you don't have a union. Personally I think unions are outdated relics of an age that belong more to Stalin than to Dickens.Or maybe it was the Facebook picture I posted about unemployment: But...

A cloud of scandalous allegations is rapidly growing over Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), putting Democratic leaders in a difficult position as the integrity of their immigration point man in the Senate falls under question at a critical time. The bad news keeps coming: a Senate Ethics probe, allegations involving underage prostitutes, an FBI investigation of a key campaign donor, undisclosed flights on the donor’s private plane, and now, reports linking Menendez to a multi-million dollar contract he helped obtain for the disgraced donor. Menendez denies nearly all of it. But it couldn’t come at a worse time for the new...

President Obama blamed the recent contraction of the U.S. economy on “bad decisions in Washington” in his weekly address. The national economy shrank by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to figures released this week by the Commerce Department. The contraction was an unexpected reversal of months of modest economic growth since the end of the recession in mid-2009. Obama said in his address that the dip was the fault of “bad decisions” being made in Washington. “We began this year with economists and business leaders saying that we are poised to grow in 2013,” he said....

Looks like liberals are still trying to peddle the discredited allegation that Tea Party members attacked black members of Congress. The op-ed page of today's New York Times contains a column by James Sleeper, a long-time left-wing activist, now a lecturer at Yale. The gist is the grudging respect that Sleeper came to have for Ed Koch, the former New York City mayor who passed away two days ago. Sleeper writes of how as mayor, Koch wrestled to the ground a protester who had stormed the stage as he spoke and pelted him with eggs. Sleeper wrote that Koch's asking...

Is Gomer Pyle one of the Four Horseman of the Liberal Apocalypse? The superficially surprising thing about last week’s announcement that Jim Nabors had married his boyfriend of four decades was not so much the nuptials themselves – I always felt Gomer was just going through the motions with Lou-Ann Poovie. Rather, it was the cultural reaction to the news that a huge star back in his day had decided he would tell even if we didn’t ask. There was no reaction. America, including conservatives regardless of their feelings about gay marriage, collectively shrugged their shoulders and generally wished the...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem A New Journey…The Names of God in The Scriptures El Hay - The Living GOD(Joshua 3:10, Jeremiah 23:36, Daniel 3:26) This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites.

A store calling itself Fearless Distributing opened early last year on an out-of-the-way street in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, offering designer clothes, athletic shoes, jewelry and drug paraphernalia. Those working behind the counter, however, weren't interested in selling anything. They were undercover agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives running a storefront sting aimed at busting criminal operations in the city by purchasing drugs and guns from felons. But the effort to date has not snared any major dealers or taken down a gang. Instead, it resulted in a string of mistakes and failures, including an ATF...

A government lawyer’s attempt to get dismissed nearly $700 in traffic tickets given to the U.S. Postal Service is being met with a hearty and humorous, Heck no. In a Jan. 22 letter sent to both the city of East Cleveland, Ohio, and the company that operates the city's photo-enforcement program, Postal Service attorney Jennifer S. Breslin says two school-zone speeding citations and five red-light infractions by postal trucks in December should be ignored. “In providing mail service across the country, the Postal Service attempts to work within local and state laws and regulations, when feasible,” wrote Breslin, after reminding...

An early spring is on the way, according to groundhog "Punxsutawney Phil." When the Pennsylvania groundhog emerged from his dwelling at Gobbler's Knob Saturday morning, he did not see his shadow. "And so ye faithful, there is no shadow to see, an early Spring for you and me," proclaimed Bob Roberts, one of Phil's handlers.

Egypt outraged by video of protest violence Updated: 12:56, Saturday, 02 February 2013 After eight days of protests that killed nearly 60 people, a video of one demonstrator stripped, dragged across the ground and beaten has fired Egyptians to a new level of outrage. Hamada Saber, a middle-aged man, lay in a police hospital this morning, after he was shown on television naked, covered in soot and thrashed by half a dozen policemen who had pulled him to an armoured vehicle near the presidential palace.

In January 1863, Abraham Lincoln made a remarkable confession. He was, he told a senator, more worried about “the fire in the rear” than he was about the Confederates to his front... Disgusted Republicans termed them “Copperheads,” after the poisonous snake... By January 1863, their assaults on Lincoln, combined with the poor performance of the armies, were taking a toll on civilian morale. Midwesterners spoke openly about seceding and establishing another new country or aligning with the Confederate States of America. Lincoln’s critics were harsh, uncompromising and relentless. They said Lincoln was a tyrant, bent on amassing power and ruining...

It is one of life's great mysteries that so many liberal people are so callous when it comes to aborting fetuses. I mean, the Democratic convention last summer was almost a pro-abortion pep rally, as a variety of pro-choice speakers, including the self-proclaimed "Catholic woman" Caroline Kennedy, knelt at the altar of "reproductive rights." Recently, another woman who calls herself a Catholic, Mary Elizabeth Williams, wrote a shocking article for Salon. Entitled "So What if Abortion Ends Life?" Williams starkly states: "I believe that life starts at conception. And it's never stopped me from being pro-choice." In the body...

With Brown out, GOP mulls Romney energy (He's back; Mr. RomneyCARE and family for MA Senate)) "Massachusetts Republicans are desperately scrambling to find a strong Senate candidate to replace Scott Brown, with some even trying to persuade Mitt Romney’s wife or son to jump into the race to avert another electoral disaster. ... Other GOP leaders also raised the prospect of Mitt’s eldest son, Tagg, launching a surprise Senate campaign. Tagg Romney was a close campaign adviser and surrogate for his father and is a successful businessman living in Belmont."

The US was keeping its doors open for direct talks with the Iranian government with regard to its controversial nuclear programme, US Vice President Joe Biden has said. "We will stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon," Xinhua quoted Biden as telling the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. He said Iran's nuclear weapon must be stopped as it posed "threat to national security of the US". However, he added that there existed "time and space" in terms of "successful diplomacy". While a window of time for negotiations would be kept open, Biden said "it would not be unlimited, and by no means...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has unveiled the country's newest fighter jet, which officials claim can evade radar. Ahmadinejad said at a Saturday ceremony broadcast on state TV that Qaher-313, or Dominant-313, showed Iran's will to "capture peaks." Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi says Qaher is "fully indigenous," designed and built by Iranian aerospace experts. The domestically designed and developed Qaher-313 is similar to the US-built F/A-18, the report said. Photos released by the official IRNA news agency shows Qaher as a single-seat jet, described as a fighter-bomber that can combat both other aircraft and ground targets.

Southern Baptists have changed their mind about Roe. When will United Methodists join them? Last week about 100,000 or more marched in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. This year they commemorated 40 years since the 1973 Supreme Court decision constitutionalizing abortion on demand. Supporting the march and the pro-life cause were leaders of AmericaÂ’s two largest religious communions, the 68 million-member Roman Catholic Church and the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention. Meanwhile, agencies for the third largest, the United Methodist Church, crafted a news release virtually celebrating Roe v. Wade. But 40 years ago, both Southern Baptists...

HALIFAX—The betrayal, the subterfuge, the years of spying. Now, facing the prospect of more than 20 years behind bars, Jeffrey Paul Delisle wishes he could take it all back. In a soft voice broken by emotion, the naval intelligence officer stood in court Friday and said he was sorry for passing intelligence secrets to the Russians. “I want to apologize to my children, my parents, my family. I love them very much and I’m sorry for the hurt and pain that I caused them,” said Delisle, a father of four. “I extend the same to my friends and my colleagues....

EDWARD I. KOCH Six days ago, Ed Koch described the tombstone that he had arranged for himself. "On my tombstone, which awaits me at the Trinity Church nondenominational cemetery at 155th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, I had inscribed the last words of Daniel Pearl — uttered at his publicly viewed murder — which were, “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.” After the latest September 11 attacks, he had written, "Will we have the resolve to stand up and protect the lifestyles and mores of western civilization now under attack by the Islamists in a...

North Disguising Test Site Activities By Mok Yong Jae [2013-02-01 21:07 ] North Korea has installed a screen over the entrance to one of the test tunnels at its nuclear test site in Kilju County, North Hamkyung Province, inhibiting intelligence gathering activities and raising fears of an impending nuclear detonation. A government source explained today, “It is believed that a roof-shaped obstruction has been installed. It appears to be a measure to stop leaks of information on preparations for a nuclear test, which are currently in their final stages.” A second source went on, “It is one way for North...

SONY is set to unveil its new PlayStation on February 20 — with film-quality graphics and ten times the processing power of the PS3. Leaks suggest the console, tipped to be named either PlayStation 4 or Orbis and cost around £300, will feature EIGHT computer chips in its electronic “brain”. That will make it more powerful than a top-end PC and dwarf the capacity of its 70 million-selling PlayStation 3 predecessor. Its ultra-HD quality graphics will be four times as detailed as the PS3’s standard HD. There will also be 3D capability — with further rumours suggesting a new controller,...

While John McCain was playing kissy face with John Kerry in Kerry’s confirmation hearing, Dianne Feinstein was pushing gun control, Obama was planning immigration legislation, and Leon Panetta was lifting the ban on women serving in combat. There was so much SGO in Obama’s full court oppress last week, we need to take some time and sort it all out. (For those just joining us, “SGO” is an acronym for “s*** going on,” a comprehensively useful term coined by former SEAL Al Clark.) If John Kerry were Barry Obama, he’d spend the next four years blaming his predecessor for the...

DES MOINES — His name graces the University of Iowa football stadium, was etched in the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was, apparently, scribbled on a football that, until this week, sat, forgotten, on a basement shelf in a West Des Moines home. Now, the football that includes Heisman winner Nile Kinnick’s name, along with the names of more than two dozen teammates and a record of the Hawkeyes’ 1939 football season sits in a bank lockbox while its owner figures out what to do next. How the ball got there is somewhat of a mystery, said Cindy Hahn, whose mother...

A perspective on our president from Down Under. In Herman Wouk’s classic World War II novel, The Caine Mutiny, there is a moment when a group of the ship’s officers are getting away from the increasingly eccentric Captain Queeq by relaxing ashore. Suddenly the malcontent Lieutenant Keefer asks the others: “Does it occur to you that Captain Queeg may be insane? In fact Queeg is not insane, at least not at that time. He is simply grappling, more and more disastrously, with a job too big for him. Come the crisis of a typhoon, he becomes paralyzed and nearly sinks...

"Morgan’s rudeness to pro-gun guests, dismissive attitude to the U.S. Constitution and the Bible, and generally anti-conservative tone have led his detractors to call him a liberal. The fact that he’s British has added an element of B-movie villainy, as if Morgan were a haughty redcoat general intent on personally confiscating Americans’ guns. But while he may walk the liberal walk and talk the liberal talk, Morgan is no liberal; he has no discernible political philosophy. He’s an unprincipled, relentlessly self-promoting opportunist, a disgraced tabloid hack who doesn’t care whom he offends or how foolish he looks as long as...

... Obama says 2013 can be a year of solid economic growth, but only if Washington gets out of the way. In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama says there are signs of progress in real estate, manufacturing and job-creation. But other signs are worrying. Unemployment ticked up from 7.8 percent in December to 7.9 percent in January. And the Commerce Department says the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the final months of 2012. Obama says the U.S. must lower health care costs and close tax loopholes for corporations and the wealthy.